HoUinger Corp. 
pH 8.5 



LB 3408 
Copy 1 



\0l 



Minimum Health Requirements 
for Rural Schools 

Proposed by 

The Joint Committee on Health Problems in 

Education of the National Council of the 

National Education Association 

and of the • 

Council on Health and Public Instruction of the 
American Medical Association 



Prepared by 

DR. THOMAS D. WOOD 

Chairman of the Committee on Health Problems of the National Council 

of Education 

525 W. 120th Street, New York City 



The publication of this edition is made possible through the generosity of 

THE ELIZABETH McCORMICK MEMORIAL FUND 

of Chicago 



The Joint Committee on Health Problems in Education 

of the 

National Council 
of the 

National Education Association 

and of the 

American Medical Association 



Committee of the National Council of the National Education 
Association on Health Problems in Education 

Thomas D. Wood, Chairman, 
Columbia University, 525 West 120th Street, New York City. 

William H. Burnham, 
Clark University, Worcester, Mass. 

P. P. Claxton, U. S. Commissioner of Education, 
Washington, D. C. 

F. B. Dresslar, 
Peabody College, Nashville, Tenn. 

Clark W. Hetherington, 
University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. 

David Starr Jordan, 
Leland Stanford Jr. University, Palo Alto, Cal. 

John F. Keating, 
Superintendent Public Schools, Pueblo, Colo. 

Charles H. Keyes, 
Skidmore School of Arts, Saratoga Springs, N. Y. 

Jacob A. Shawan, 
Superintendent of Schools, Columbus, Ohio 

Albert E. Winship, 
New England Journal of Education, Boston, Mass. 

Committee of the American Medical Association on Health Problems 
in Education 

R. W. CoRWiN, Chairman, 
Minnequa Hospital, Pueblo, Colo. 

John M. Dodson, 
Rush Medical College, Chicago, 111. 

M. J. Rosenau, 
Harvard University, Boston, Mass. 



Press of 

American Medical Association 

Five Hundred and Thirty-Five North Dearborn Street 

CHICAGO 



D. Of D« 
JUL 24 1916 



Minimum Sanitary Requirements 
for Rural Schools 



It is the desire and purpose of this Committee to 
help estabhsh a standard of fundamental health essen- 
tials in the rural school and its material equipment, so 
that attainment of this minimum standard may be 
demanded by educational authorities and by public 
opinion of every rural school throughout the country. 

Conformity to the minimum sanitary requirements 
should be absolutely necessary to the pride and self 
respect of the community, and to the sanction and 
approval of county, state and other supervising and 
interested official or social agencies. 

Neglect of anything essential for health in construc- 
tion, equipment and care of the rural school plant is 
at least an educational sin of omission and may reason- 
ably be considered a social and civic crime or mis- 
demeanor. 

The country school should be as sanitary and whole- 
some in all essential particulars as the best home in 
the community. Further, it should be pleasing and 
attractive in appearance, in furnishings and in sur- 
roundings, so that the community as a whole may be 
proud of it ; so that the pupils and teacher may take 
pleasure in attending school and in caring for and 
improving it. 

I. LOCATION AND SURROUNDINGS 

The school should be located in as healthful a place 
as exists in the community. 

Noise and all other objectionable factors should be 
eliminated from the immediate environment of the 
rural school. 

Accessibility. — Not more than two miles from the 
most distant home, if the children walk. Not more 
than six miles from most distant home, if school 
wagons are provided. 

Drainage. — Schoolground must be well drained and 
as dry as possible. If natural drainage is not adequate, 
artificial drainage should be provided. 



Soil. — As every rural schoolground should have 
trees, shrubs and a real garden or experimental farm, 
the soil of the schoolgrounds should be fertile and 
tillable. Rock and clay soil should always be avoided. 
If the soil is muddy when wet, a good layer of sand 
and fine gravel should be used to make the children's 
playground as useful as possible in all kinds of weather. 

Sise of Schoolgrounds. — For the schoolhouse and 
playground, at least three acres are required.^ 

A playground is not a luxury but a necessity. A 
school without a playground is an educational defor- 
mity and presents a gross injustice to childhood. 

Arrangement of Grounds. — The schoolground 
should have trees, plants and shrubs grouped with 
artistic effect but without interfering with the chil- 
dren's playground or the lighting of the schoolhouse. 

II. SCHOOLHOUSE 

The schoolhouse should be made as nearly fireproof 
as possible. Doors should always open outward and 
the main door should have a covered entrance ; a sep- 
arate fuel room should be provided, also separate 
cloak-rooms for boys and for girls. 

A basement or cellar, if provided, should be well 
ventilated and absolutely dry. 

The one-teacher country school should contain, in 
addition to the classroom: 

(a) A small entrance hall, not less than 6 by 8 
feet. 

(b) A small retiring room, not less than 8 by 10 
feet, to be used as an emergency room in case of ill- 
ness or accident, for a teacher's conference room, 
for school library and for health inspection, a feature 
now being added to the work of the rural school. 

(c) A small room, not less than 8 by 10 feet, for 
a workshop, for instruction in cooking and for the 
preparation of refreshments when the school is used, 
as it should be, for social purposes. 

' Classroom should not be less than 30 feet long, 20 
feet wide and 12 feet high. This will provide space 
enough for a maximum of thirty pupils. 

1. If the rural school plant includes the additional features (a 
teacher's home, a garden and an experimental farm), which are already 
in some progressive states accepted and established as educational 
essentials, then the schoolgrounds should contain 8 to 10 acres. 



Ill, VENTILATION AND HEATING 

The schoolroom should always receive fresh air 
coming directly from out of doors in one of the fol- 
lowing arrangements : 

(a) Through wide open windows in mild weather. 

(b) Through window board ventilators under all 
other conditions, except when, with furnace or jack- 
eted stove, special and adequate inlets and exits for 
air are provided. 

Heating. — Unless furnace or some other basement 
system of heating is installed, at least a properly 
jacketed stove is required. (No unjacketed stove 
should be tolerated in any school.) 

The jacketed stove should have a direct fresh air 
inlet about 12 inches square, opening through the wall 
of the schoolhouse into the jacket against the middle 
or hottest part of the stove. 

The exit for foul air should be through an opening 
at least 16 inches square on the wall near the floor, 
on the same side of the room as the stove is located. 

A fireplace with flue adjoining the stove chimney 
makes a good exit for bad air.^ 

Temperature. — Every school should have a ther- 
mometer, and the temperature in cold weather should 
be kept between 66 and 68 Fahrenheit. 

IV. LIGHTING 

The schoolroom should receive an abundance of 
light, sufficient for darkest days, with all parts of the 
room adequately illuminated. 

The area of glass in windows should be from % to 
34 of the floor area. 

The best arrangement, according to present ideas, 
is to have the light come only from the left side of the 
pupils and from the long wall of the classroom. Win- 
dows may be allowed on rear as well as on the left side, 
but the sills of windows in the rear of the room should 
be not less than 7 feet above the floor. High windows 
not less than 7 feet from the floor may be permitted 
on the right side if thoroughly shaded, as an aid to 
cross ventilation, but not for lighting. 

2. The following arrangement for ventilating flue is required in 
one western state: A circular sheet steel smoke flue, passing up in 
center of ventilating shaft (foul air exit) 20 inches square in the 
clear, • 



There should be no trees or shrubbery near the 
schoolhouse which will interfere with the lighting and 
natural ventilation of the classroom. 

The school building should so face that the school- 
room will receive the direct sunlight at some time dur- 
ing the day. The main windows of the schoolroom 
should not face either directly north or south. East 
or west facing is desirable. 

Shades should be provided at tops and bottoms of 
windows with translucent shades at top, so that light 
may be properly controlled on bright days. 

Schoolroom Colors. — The best colors for the school- 
room in relation to lighting are : 
Ceiling — white or light cream. 
Walls — light gray or light green. 
Blackboards — black, but not glossy. 

V. CLEANLINESS 

The schoolhouse and surroundings should be kept 
as clean as a good housekeeper keeps her home. 

(a) No dry sweeping or dry dusting should be 
allowed. 

(b) Floors and furniture should be cleaned with 
damp sweepers and oily cloths.^ 

(c) Scrubbing, sunning and airing are better than 
any form of fumigation. 

VI. DRINKING WATER 

Drinking water should be available for every pupil 
at any time of day which does not interfere with the 
school program. 

Every rural school should have a sanitary drinking 
fountain located just inside or outside the schoolhouse 
entrance. 

Drinking water should come from a safe source. 
Its purity should be certified by an examination by 
the State Board of Health or by some other equally 
reliable authority. 

A common drinking cup is always dangerous and 
should never be tolerated. 

Individual drinking cups are theoretically, and in 
some conditions all right, but practical experience has 

3.' Sweeping compounds in moist proof containers may be obtained 
in the market. 



proved that in schools, individual cups, to be used 
more than once, are unsatisfactory and unhygienic. 
Therefore, they are not to be advocated nor approved 
for any school. 

Sufficient pressure for running water for drinking 
fountain or other uses in the rural school may always 
be provided from any source without excessive expense 
by a storage tank or by pressure tank with force pump. 

VII. WATER FOR WASHING 

Children in all schools should have facilities for 
washing hands available at least : 

(a) Always after the use of the toilet. 

(b) Always before eating. 

(c) Frequently after playing outdoors, writing on 
blackboard or doing other forms of handwork con- 
nected with the school. 

Individual clean towels should always be used. 
Paper towels are the cheapest and most practicable. 
The common towel is as dangerous to health as the 
common drinking cup. 

VIII. FURNITURE 

School seats and desks should be hygienic in type 
and adjusted at least twice a year to the size and needs 
of growing children. Seats and desks should be indi- 
vidual — separate — adjustable — clean. 

Books and other materials of instruction should not 
only be sanitary but attractive enough to stimulate a 
wholesome response from the pupils. 

IX. TOILETS AND PRIVIES 

Toilets and privies should be sanitary in location, 
construction and in maintenance. 

(a) If water carriage system for sewage is avail- 
able, separate toilets for boys and girls should be 
located in the schoolhouse with separate entrances on 
different sides or corners of the school building. 

(b) If there is no water carriage system, separate 
privies should be located at least 50 feet in the differ- 
ent directions from the schoolhouse, with the entrances 
well screened. 



6 

(c) The privy should be rainproof, well ventilated 
and one of the following types: 

1. Dry earth closet. 

2. Septic tank container. 

3. With a water-tight vault or box. 

All containers of excreta should be water-tight, 
thoroughly screened against insects and easily cleaned 
at frequent intervals. 

No cesspool should be used unless it is water-tight 
and easily emptied and cleaned. 

All excreta should be either burned, buried, treated 
by subsoil drainage, reduced by septic tank treatment 
or properly distributed on tilled land as fertilizer. 

X. ALL SCHOOLHOUSES AND PRIVIES SHOULD BE THOR- 
OUGHLY AND EFFECTIVELY SCREENED AGAINST 

FLIES AND MOSQUITOES 

XI. SCHOOLHOUSES AND OUTHOUSES SHOULD BE ABSO- 

LUTELY FREE FROM ALL DEFACING AND 
OBSCENE MARKS 

XII. BUILDINGS SHOULD BE KEPT IN GOOD REPAIR AND 

WITH WHOLE WINDOWS 



STANDARDS 



Provision and equipment of adequate school plant 
depends on intelligence, interest, pride and financial 
ability of community. 

Maintenance of a clean and sanitary school plant 
depends on efficient housekeeping and on interest and 
willing cooperation of pupils. 

No community should be satisfied by the minimum 
requirements indicated in the foregoing, but every 
country school should be so attractive and well 
equipped as to minister with some abundance of satis- 
faction to the physical, mental, aesthetic, social and 
moral well being of those who provide it, who own it, 
who use it and who enjoy it. 

PRESENT CONDITIONS 

Among the reasons which explain the present 
deplorable conditions of rural schoolhouses, the fol- 
lowing are prominent ; 



(a) Low architectural and sanitary standards in 
rural regions general throughout the country. 

(b) Ignorance regarding the physical, mental, social 
and moral effects of unattractive and insanitary school 
buildings on the children and on the community as a 
whole. 

(c) False economy expressed by local school boards 
in failure to vote enough money to build and maintain 
suitable school buildings. 

(d) Lack of supervision or assistance by the state 
which is usually necessary to maintain desirable stand- 
ards. 

IMPROVEMENT 

How shall the rural schools throughout this country 
be improved up to a reasonably satisfactory standard? 

L By a popular campaign of education regarding 
the conditions desirable and possible in the country 
school. Such a campaign would profitably include 
many or most of the following : 

(a) The United States Bureau of Education and 
State Departments of Education should furnish plans 
and instructions for construction and equipment of 
rural school buildings. 

The United States Bureau of Education in Wash- 
ington is already supplying on request valuable help 
of this kind, and a few state departments of education 
are demonstrating what may be done by supervision 
and support which aids without controlling. 

(b) State departments of education should supply 
supervision of rural schools and should have power: 

(1) To condemn insanitary and wholly unsuit- 
able buildings and school sites. 

(2) To give state aid to rural schools when the 
local authorities fulfil certain desirable and reason- 
able conditions. 

(c) Ideas and standards of school sanitation should 
be inculcated in minds of local school patrons and 
school authorities who control school funds and who 
administer the affairs of the schools. Public lectures 
on health topics should be provided in the schoolhouse 
and elsewhere. 

(d) Effective school health courses should be intro- 
duced in normal schools and teachers' institutes. 



Better education of rural schoolteachers, county 
supermtendents and rural school supervisors in the 
principles and practice of school hygiene and sanita- 
tion should be assured. 

(e) Interest in and enthusiasm for the improvement 
and care of all features of the school and its surround- 
ings which affect health and happiness should be 
inspired in the minds of rural school pupils. 

Organizations such as "Pupils' Board of Health," 
"Civic Leagues," or "Health Militias" may profitably 
be formed among pupils. 

(f) Organizations like "The Granges," Women's 
Clubs, County Medical Societies and other groups so 
situated that they may further the cause of health and 
efficiency, should cooperate with the rural school. 

(g) Attractive but reliable health information 
should be furnished abundantly by the public press. 

II. Emulation and competition should be recognized 
and rewarded in ways that will promote wholesomel}' 
and progressively the welfare of the community as a 
whole. . 



THE SPECIAL PROBLEM 



THERE ARE IN THE UNITED STATES 20.000,000 SCHOOLCHIL- 
DREN. OVER 12,000,000 (60 PER CENT.) OF THESE CHILDREN 
ARE ATTENDING 250,000 RURAL SCHOOLS. THE COUNTRY SCHOOL- 
HOUSE IS THE WORST, THE MOST INSANITARY AND INADEQUATE 
TYPE OF BUILDING IN THE WHOLE COUNTRY, INCLUDING NOT 
ONLY BUILDINGS FOR HUMAN BEINGS, BUT ALSO THOSE USED 
FOR DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

RURAL SCHOOLCHILDREN ARE LESS HEALTHY, AND ARE 
HANDICAPPED BY MORE PHYSICAL DEFECTS THAN ARE THE 
CHILDREN OF THE CITIES, INCLUDING EVEN THE CHILDREN 
OF THE SLUMS. 

HEALTHFUL AND ATTRACTIVE RURAL SCHOOLS ARE ABSO- 
LUTELY ESSENTIAL TO THE PHYSICAL, MENTAL, SOCIAL, ECO- 
NOMIC AND MORAL WELL-BEING OF THE CHILDREN THEMSELVES, 
AND TO THE LIFE AND WELFARE OF THE NATION AS A WHOLE. 

COUNTRY SCHOOLCHILDREN SHOULD HAVE AS SANITARY AND 
ATTRACTIVE SCHOOLS, AND AS INTELLIGENT AND EFFECTIVE 
HEALTH CARE AS SCHOOLCHILDREN IN THE CITIES. 

THE HEALTH CARE OF RURAL SCHOOLCHILDREN SHOULD 
INCLUDE AT LEAST THE FOLLOWING: 

(A) SCHOOLHOUSES SANITARY AND ATTRACTIVE, WELL VEN- 
TILATED, LIGHTED, CLEANED, AND EQUIPPED WITHIN AND WITH- 
OUT WITH THE HEALTH ESSENTIALS ENUMERATED ON THE 
FOLLOWING PAGE. 

(B) TEACHERS BETTER TRAINED AND BETTER PAID TO DO 
THEIR LOGICAL AND FULL SHARE IN CARRYING OUT A HEALTH 
PROGRAM. 

(C) HEALTH EXAMINATIONS. INCLUDING DENTAL INSPECTION, 
ONCE A YEAR. 

(D) FOLLOW-UP HEALTH WORK BY DISTRICT AND SCHOOL 
NURSES. 

(E) HEALTH CARE IN THE SCHOOL, INCLUDING HEALTH 
INSTRUCTION, WARM SCHOOL LUNCHES, TOOTH BRUSH 
DRILLS AND INCULCATION OF ALL HEALTH HABITS. 

(F) PROVISION FOR REMOVAL OF INJURIOUS PHYSICAL 
DEFECTS BY DENTAL CLINICS. HEALTH CLINICS. ETC. 

(G) COOPERATION OF ALL AVAILABLE INDIVIDUALS AND 
ORGANIZATIONS FOR THE PROMOTION OF HEALTH AND WELFARE 
OF COUNTRY SCHOOLCHILDREN. 

COUNTRY CHILDREN DESERVE AS MUCH HEALTH AND HAPPI- 
NESS AS CITY CHILDREN. 

COUNTRY CHILDREN ARE ENTITLED TO AS CAREFUL CULTIVA- 
TION AS LIVE STOCK AND CROPS. 



020 975 931 7 



TEN SANITARY COMMANDMENTS FOR 
RURAL SCHOOLS 

In every school which may be considered passably sanitary 
the following conditions shall obtain: 

1. Heating by at least a properly jacketed stove. (No 
unjacketed stove to be allowed.) Avoid overheating. Tem- 
perature should never go above 68 F. There should be a 
thermometer in every schoolroom. 

Ventilation by open windows when weather permits and 
by opening of windows at frequent intervals even in winter. 

2. Lighting from left side of room (or from left and rear) 
through window space at least one-fifth of floor space in area. 

3. Cleanliness of school as good as in the home of a care- 
ful housekeeper. 

4. Furniture sanitary in kind, and easily and frequently 
cleaned. Seats and desks adjustable and hygienic in type. 

5. Drinking water from a pure source provided by a sani- 
tary drinking fountain. 

6. Facilities for washing hands, and individual towels. 

7. Toilets and privies sanitary in type and in care (with 
no cesspools unless water tight) and no neglected privy 
boxes or vaults. 

8. Flies and mosquitoes excluded by thorough screening 
of schoolhouse and toilets. 

9. Obscene and defacing marks absolutely absent from 
schoolhouse and privies. 

10. Playground of adequate size for every rural school. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



020 975 931 7< 



